The Education of Catholic GirlsStuart, Janet Erskine
Religion
The Education of Catholic Girls
Stuart, Janet Erskine
Catholic Church -- Education; Women -- Education
To make preparatory subjects serve such a purpose it is obviously
required that the teachers of even young children should have been
themselves trained in these studies, so far at least as to know what
they are aiming at, to be able to lay foundations which will not
require to be reconstructed. It is not the matter so much as the
habits of mind and work that are remotely prepared in the early
stages, but without some knowledge of what is coming afterwards this
preparation cannot be made. In order of arrangement it is not possible
for the different branches to be taught to girls according to their
normal sequence; they have to be adapted to the capacity of the minds
and their degree of development. Some branches cannot even be
attempted during the school-room years, except so far as to prepare
the mind incidentally during the study of other branches. The
explanation of certain terms and fundamental notions will serve as
points of departure when opportunities for development are accessible
later on, as architects set "toothings" at the angles of buildings
that they may be bonded into later constructions. By this means the
names of the more abstruse branches are kept out of sight, and it is
emphasized that the barest elements alone are within reach at present,
so that the permanent impression may be--not "how much I have
learned," but "how little I know and how much there is to learn." This
secures at least a fitting attitude of mind in those who will never go
further, and increases the thirst of those who really want more.
The most valuable parts of philosophy in the education of
girls are:--
1. Those which belong to the practical side--logic, for thought;
ethics, for conduct; aesthetics, for the study of the arts.
2. In speculative philosophy the "disciplines" which are most
accessible and most necessary are psychology, and natural theology
which is the very crown of all that they are able to learn.
General metaphysics and cosmology, and in pyschology the subordinate
treatises of criteriology and idealogy are beyond their scope.
Logic, as a science, is not a suitable introduction, though some
general notions on the subject are necessary as preliminary
instructions. Cardinal Mercier presents these under "propaedeutics,"
even for his grown-up scholars, placing logic properly so called in
its own rank as the complement of the other treatises of speculative
philosophy, seen in retrospect, a science of rational order amongst
sciences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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